Last week Anabelle's great-grandpa passed away. We flew to Chicago to be with all of Pat's family, and what a week it was. There was a visitation, a burial and a funeral as well as Easter brunch and egg hunts, Honey baked ham lunches, a Swedish pancake birthday breakfast with a chocolate cake for dinner's dessert (thanks Mom!). And two pedicures for yours truly and her hubby to celebrate the fact that I turned 32 on Tuesday.

And Gene would have been 83 yesterday.

I learned a lot about him through the slide show and old pictures I looked through. And of course the memories that everyone talked about. Raising 8 kids, enduring the death of 2, writing plays for the community's kids, building floats for the 4th of July parade, watching 16 grandchildren grow up, and then meeting number 17 - his great-granddaughter... And my favorite, a moment caught in a quick photo: on the way to a job interview years ago, Pat had to stop off at his grandparent's house so that Gene could help him tie his tie.

Oh, family.